Why do stress, worry, fear, and judgment arise?
What is happening when you feel anxiety, discomfort, unhappiness? Why did that happen? Where did that come from? What caused those things to show up in your reality?
If we can start to notice those feelings, instead of being unconsciously consumed by them, we aren’t as easily overtaken by those feelings. We can see ourselves as separate from them. Instead of being completely emersed in the stress or the unhappiness, we can realize we are people with feelings, instead of the feelings themselves.
Remind yourself “I’m not this stress, I’m not this anxiety.” There might be a reason why it happened, or there might not have been, but it’s not me—it is just an experience I am having. I am a person, and I sometimes have the experience of unhappiness, I’m not unhappy. I’m a person that’s neutral, and in fact, maybe I’m mostly happy. Sometimes I have an experience of unhappiness, but I’m not unhappy. Once you label yourself, it is harder to be independent of the situation.